The Wedding Date
by seddiefan2009
Summary: Sam needs a date to her Dad's wedding. Poor Freddie gets recruited.


Disclaimer: I own nothing...

"Fredwald you're taking me to Olympia on Saturday." Sam said plopping down on the Shay's sofa.

"What for?" Freddie asked cautiously. The last time Sam needed a ride to Olympia she filled his backseat with four dozen slabs of ribs.

"There's just something I have to do. Oh you'll need to wear a suit." She added as an afterthought.

"What?" Freddie asked, nearly choking on his peppy cola. "What illegal activities involve wearing a suit?"

"Actually there are twenty seven, but we're not gonna be doin' any of 'em, I gotta go to a wedding and I need a ride and since you'll be there you might as well come in and eat." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Why can't you take the bus?" He eyed her suspiciously.

"Because it would take forever, by the time I got to the wedding, waited for it to be over and rode the bus back it would be midnight. You know how lazy I am." She responded matter of factly.

Freddie nearly laughed, but stopped himself. "Okay, so why not have Carly take you?"

"I was going to but she has some stupid student council meeting."

"Oh, okay then I guess I could take you." Freddie sighed picturing a Saturday in the car alone with Sam and having to go to a wedding with her crazy relatives.

"Be ready at 9. The wedding's at 1." Sam said, picking up Freddie's peppy cola and dumping it over his head.

Seddieseddieseddie

Freddie stood in front of his full length mirror, adjusting his tie. His mother had insisted that he wear his new pink tie, but he slipped his light up Mickey Mouse one that Spencer had given him for his birthday in his bag since he knew Sam would like it better. He quickly checked his bag. His mother always made him take one on long trips, just in case. He ran over his mental checklist, deodorant…check, toothbrush…check, toothpaste…check. He quickly finished the list and grabbed his keys. Sam hated it when he was late.

He walked across the hall as his mother started yelling at him to check and be sure he had extra underwear. He quickly shut his door and knocked on Carly's.

Carly answered in her PJ's. "Oh hey Freddie Sam's still upstairs putting on her dress. I packed her a bag even though she says she doesn't need one, here it is." Carly said handing him the black overnight case. He accepted it they both knew that Sam would want to change out of her dress before the drive back.

"Hey, Freddie could I talk to you for a minute?" Carly asked quietly.

"Um…sure?" Freddie whispered back.

"Look I just wanted to thank you for taking her. This meeting's really important and this wedding is really important to Sam. She hasn't even heard from her Dad in years." Carly said, looking him dead in the eye and begging him to realize how important this day was to their best friend.

"Years?" Freddie asked with a sad look.

"Yeah, he left when she was like six or something and then he started writing her letters when we were ten and then stopped after a few years. She hasn't heard from him since her twelfth birthday."

Freddie nodded, understanding that today was big for Sam.

Just then Sam came downstairs in a beautiful blue dress. It hit her knees and matched her eyes. It was plain in that it had no embellishments but it didn't look plain on her. Freddie gulped when he saw her. He'd only seen her girly a few times and it never got old. That's when he realized just how important this is to Sam. She doesn't get dressed up for just anyone. Suddenly he felt very touched to be going with her.

"So you ready Freddork?" Sam asked, breaking the spell. She looked as if she was already ready to change clothes.

"Yeah I filled the car up last night so we won't have to stop until we get to Olympia."

"And what am I supposed to eat if we aren't planning on stopping?" Sam yelled at him.

Freddie reached in his bag and pulled out a bag filled with candy, "This should get you to the car and I have a cooler in the backseat filled with ham that I bought from your favorite restaurant this morning."

Carly just smiled at him while Sam looked as though the mothership had landed. "Good girl," she said patting his head as she walked past him. Freddie sighed and rolled his eyes at Carly as he turned around and followed Sam out.

Seddieseddieseddie

The ride to Olympia was fairly uneventful, well as uneventful as a two hour drive with Sam could be. She made him pull over three times so she could pee and changed the radio station over 120 times. Then she took a nap for the last hour and a half.

Freddie did a double take as he pulled into the church parking lot. The church was beautiful; it was painted white and looked quant yet elegant on the outside. He circled the church before pulling into a parking space and putting the car into park. He leaned over to Sam and gently tapped her shoulder.

"Sam we're here," he said in a normal voice. He had tried yelling at Sam once to wake her up; he would never do that again. She had come after him with a spork, and if you don't think a spork is a deadly weapon then you don't know Sam.

Sam opened her eyes, "We're here?"

"Yeah princess Puckett we're here," he smirked.

Sam stretched as she woke up more fully and groaned as she looked at her dress and then mumbled something that Freddie couldn't quite understand.

Freddie got out of the car and smoothed out his suit while Sam took forever to open her door. Finally, she emerged and finger brushed her hair as she walked over to his side.

"So how do I look?" She asked nervously.

Freddie looked over her. He gulped as his eyes ran over her body. "Um, good? Can I just do one thing?"

Sam looked him dead in the eye, "Yeah yeah whatever."

Freddie reached over and smoothed out the strap of her dress, it had gotten twisted in her sleep. He stood back and gave her one more look over, noting the mixture of frustration and worry in her eyes.

"Perfect," he announced before remembering who he was talking too.

Freddie blushed and Sam shook her head. She wasn't completely awake yet. This wasn't the first time he had noticed that she was a girl but there was something about Sam when she was dressed up that brought out feelings in Freddie that he had been pushing down for the last two years, since their kiss.

"So the ceremony won't start for another hour." Freddie said trying to focus on anything other than how beautiful she looked in that dress. He had no idea why he was so taken in by Sam but he was trying his hardest to remember that this is the same girl that sent his cell phone to Cambodia and who had hit him in unmentionable places with a tennis racket.

"Yea, maybe I'll get to see my Dad before the ceremony." Sam said, more to herself than to him.

"Do you think he's here yet?"

Sam looked over and in the front of the church was an old beat up pickup. "Yeah, he's here." She smiled to herself.

Freddie was faced, once again with exactly how important this was to Sam as he watched her walk nervously up to the church. Any other day and he may have made fun of her for being afraid of something; he just couldn't bring himself to do it that today. He walked up behind her and nudged her with his shoulder. She turned and looked at him, smirked and turned back to the church.

When they walked into the church there were flowers everywhere and people running around double checking everything. Sam walked over to one of the guys in suits and asked, "Where's Jimmy?"

"Right over there." The man answered, pointing to a room with an open door. Sam simply walked off, no thank you or nod.

Freddie stood by the entrance, feeling awkward when Sam turned around and yelled, "Yo dorkwad, you coming?"

Freddie followed obediently. When he reached her she looked so nervous that he felt the urge to hold her hand to calm her down. He pushed that feeling down, quickly. Sam was fidgeting and biting her bottom lip. Freddie leaned over and brushed his arm against hers, and was surprised when her hand grasped his tightly. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that it didn't mean anything. She needed a friend. And he was her friend.

"Well come on." She said, pulling him into the room.

It took a few moments before any of the three men in the room noticed they were there.

"Oh, Sam? Or are you Melanie?" A man in a tux asked as he walked across the room and hugged her. It was especially awkward since she held her death grip on Freddie's hand.

"It's Sam. Melanie can't make it she has some big test on Monday or something."

"Aww, well that's Mel for ya." He turned around to the other guys and asked, "Hey could you give us a moment?"

As the other two guys left Jimmy looked Freddie over, noting their linked hands. "So, who is this?"

"Oh this is my friend, dorkwad." She said casually.

"Dorkwad?" He asked with an amused expression.

"It's Freddie actually she just has little nicknames for me." Freddie rushed in before she could say anything else.

Jimmy nodded at Freddie. "Well, Freddie, do you think you could give me a minute with my daughter?"

Freddie looked at Sam and at her nod he retrieved his hand and walked out the door, shutting it on his way.

Freddie stood outside the door waiting for Sam for nearly twenty minutes before she emerged from the room. He'd been tempted to put his ear to the door a few times but his mother had always told him that eavesdropping was wrong. When Sam finally came out of the room she looked kind of sad, but quickly covered it up.

"Oh my God, ribs!" Sam squealed as she noticed the buffet of ribs on the other side of the church. According to one of the ushers Jimmy had insisted on a meat buffet in the church to hold people over until the reception.

Freddie sighed as he followed her to the buffet. He really wasn't hungry and he didn't want her to rub the rib on his face, but where else did he have to go?

"So how did things go with your Dad?" Freddie asked as he watched her pick up a slab of ribs and bring it to her mouth, taking a big bite of it.

She looked up at him with her mouth full and shrugged.

He laughed and picked up and napkin and dipped it in a pitcher of water off to the side. He moved to hand it to her but she starred at it and then him before asking, "What am I supposed to do with that?"

He gave a dry laugh as he reached over and wiped her face clean, "People are starting to show up, I thought you'd want to look nice when they get here."

She shrugged again and picked up another slab of ribs. Freddie just stood by and watched in morbid fascination as she finished the entire slab in less than five minutes and picked up another napkin to wipe her face again. He slowly wiped her mouth clean smirking as her breath hitched. She looked up at him with an amount of emotion that she rarely exposed and he gulped before moving the napkin up her face and rubbing her eyes and nose playfully. She glared at him as he pulled back and laughed.

Before she could say anything an older woman with a raspy voice tapped her on the shoulder, "Excuse me are you Jimmy's niece?"

Freddie moved to correct the woman but Sam jumped in before he could and said, "Yup that's me, Sam Puckett Jimmy's niece."

Freddie gave her a questioning look but kept his mouth shut.

The older woman continued, "It's so nice to finally meet some of his family. He's such a private person you know."

Sam smiled angrily as she reached down and grabbed another slab as she replied, "Yup, um if you'll cuse us we have to go talk to the groom." She grabbed Freddie's hand before the woman could respond and pulled him away with one hand while she held onto the ribs with her other hand.

Once they were down the hall Sam pulled him into one of the Sunday school rooms and sat at the table as she put the ribs back to her mouth.

"Sam, what was that all about?" Freddie asked in a loud whisper voice as he anxiously looked out the door into the hall.

Sam snorted, "He doesn't want people to know he has kids that he abandoned so he told everybody I'm his niece." She shrugged as she starred at her slab of ribs and licked the barbeque sauce from her lips.

Freddie just starred at her in shock, "What?"

She looked over to him and sighed, "You heard me Fredward."

He gaped at her for a moment, "Doesn't that upset you?"

She rolled her eyes as she finished her third slab of ribs, "Tone down the testosterone. It ain't a big deal."

"It's not a big deal? How is this not a big deal Sam?"

She took in a deep breath as she looked him in the eye and said, "I don't wanna make him mad and get kicked out. They have good ribs here."

Freddie continued starring for a moment before taking a deep breath. She just wanted her Dad to keep talking to her. How could he rob her of that? "Fine."

She didn't grace him with a reply as she got up and walked out of the room with him closely behind.

…break….

The ceremony went pretty smoothly, Sam didn't pay attention to most of it, opting to gorge herself on ribs. Freddie didn't pay attention either, as his attention was focused on his best friend.

The reception was across town so they had to drive there from the church. The drive was completely silent as Sam stared out the window subdued.

The reception moved along in much the same fashion. They sat in a back corner. Sam didn't say a word to him as she picked up three Cornish Game Hens and dug into them. She only spoke when other people greeted her, and even then it was usually one word responses followed by her taking a huge bite of food.

Freddie was worried; he'd never seen her act like this before.

"Oh hey Sammy," Jimmy called as he walked over and placed a hand on her back, "I just wanted to say thanks baby girl. They've been hounding me about meeting my family and I never told them about you and Mel. They're classy people I don't want them knowing. You understand?"

Sam nodded solemnly as she reached down to her plate only to find it empty. He could tell she was starting to panic as he pushed his barely picked at plate over to her. She immediately ripped on the chicken and shoved the meat into her mouth.

Freddie shook his head away from her and focused his attention on her father, giving him a glare. Jimmy looked over at him and said, "Hey kid, thanks for bringing her."

Freddie laughed humorlessly as he stood up and stalked over to him, with his hands drawn into fists at his side. Before he realized what he was doing he had reached back and bought his fist down hard in Jimmy's face, causing him to fall backwards and land on the ground with a thud. There was blood pouring from his nose as Freddie just stared down at him, unable to believe what he had just done.

Sam looked around the room, which had suddenly gotten quiet as she stood up and yelled, "I'm not his niece, I'm his daughter. He lied to all of you." With that she grabbed Freddie's hand and pulled him behind her, quickly making her way to the car.

Freddie cleared his head as he followed Sam out to the car and pulled out his keys. She stopped when they got to the door and turned to face him, "Look I just want to say thanks. I guess."

He smiled down at her. "You're welcome. I guess."

She just shook her head and looked down at their intertwined hands. She blushed as she looked back up to his eyes.

He cleared his throat and said, "Let's get in the car."

She nodded as he moved to unlock the door and opened it for her. Once he'd moved around the car and gotten in he started it and pressed on the gas.

They'd made it to the entrance to the highway before Freddie pulled over at a gas station and stopped the car to fill up.

Sam sat quietly the whole time. Once Freddie got back into the car he looked over to her. "Do you wanna go somewhere?"

"I thought that's what we were doing." She looked over at him.

Freddie fidgeted slightly under her gaze, "I mean before we go home."

She shrugged her shoulders slightly before adding, "Why not?"

He pulled the car out of the parking lot and turned the opposite way from the highway. He drove in silence for ten minutes or so before he pulled the car over in a park.

She looked over to him questioningly.

"This is the last place I ever saw my Dad." Her eyes widened as he continued, "He and Mom brought me here every Saturday until I was seven. One day they got in this big fight and he left. We thought he would be at home waiting for us but by the time we got home all his stuff was gone. I never saw him again."

He's been staring out the window the whole time, lost in his memory, but turned back to her after he'd finished.

"I'm sorry," She offered.

He snorted softly, "So am I. I probably ruined any chance you had of ever seeing your Dad again."

Her bottom lip moved from side to side as it rubbed against her top lip. "It's okay. He didn't really want me there anyway. He just needed a family member there to throw them off. Besides I'm the one who told them why you hit him."

They each stayed silent for a long minute as they collected their thoughts.

Freddie hesitantly reached a hand out to touch Sam's hand and ran a nervous thumb over her knuckle. He heard her suck in a shaky breath of air and knew she was trying to hold it in. He moved his hand to rest more fully in hers and leaned over to whisper, "It's okay to cry you know."

She snorted as she turned to him. Her eyes were glassy, "He's not worth it."

"Maybe not," He sucked it a deep breath, "But you are."

She laughed as a tear escaped her eye, "You're such a nub Freddie." With that another tear escaped her eye. She rubbed furiously at her eyes trying to make them stop. When they wouldn't she got angry.

"Why the hell should I cry over that bastard, huh? I mean he left, not me. He's the one who's messed up."

She pulled her hand away from Freddie's as she got out of the car and stomped over to a nearby tree. Freddie quickly followed her.

She let out a scream as she raised a hand to punch the tree.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Freddie yelled as he ran over and held her hand back, "You'll break your hand if you do that."

She turned on him, "I need to hit something and it's either that tree or you." She seethed.

Freddie sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth, "Then hit me."

She looked slightly taken back for a half second before composing herself and pummeling him. He fell to the ground with her on top of him. She punched and kicked every place she could find. He knew he'd feel it in the morning but he couldn't bring himself to focus on anything but the blonde currently punching him in the stomach.

Finally, after Freddie groaned in pain Sam snapped out of it and pulled back. She sat up slowly, adjusting her body so that she was sitting with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Freddie grunted in pain as he attempted to maneuver his body into a sitting position.

Once he was seated next to her she let an eye turn to him and muttered, "Sorry."

"Its okay." He rubbed his back slowly.

They sat quietly for while, each looking around slowly, taking the scene in. Finally Sam looked over to Freddie and quietly asked, "You sure you wanna go home tonight? Your Mom'll have a fit if she sees those bruises before you cover them up."

Freddie nodded, "We do have our bags. We could get a hotel if you want."

"Sounds good." She said quietly, and Freddie could tell she was just plain tired.

Freddie tried to stand up but grunted in pain. Sam rolled her eyes as she got up and reached an arm down to help him. He was slightly shocked as he starred at her, but took her offer anyways.

After finding a cheap motel in the area they had to lie about their age and say they were 21. Sam had a fake ID so they were able to get away with it.

After finding their room Sam plopped down on the bed while Freddie dumped his bag in the corner and threw hers at her feet on the bed. "There's extra clothes in there if you wanna change."

She looked down at her dress, "I totally forgot I was still in this torture trap. I guess it's just one more thing to hate about Jimmy. He made me wear a dress."

Freddie laughed as she ran to bathroom to change. He quickly changed while she was in the bathroom, laying on the bed in his t-shirt and pajama bottoms and turning on the TV.

By the time Sam came back out he had settled on some old sci-fi movie that involved a monster with a visible zipper on his back. Sam quickly made her way to the bed and dropped into it.

"What're we watching?" She asked with a yawn.

"Some awful sci-fi movie from the fifties." He responded with yawn. They're contagious.

They laid next to each other for the rest of the movie. At some point Freddie's hand made its way into Sam's and her head made its way to lay on his shoulder. Freddie felt his heart beating through his chest as she used him as a pillow.

"Freddie?" She groggily called to him.

"Hmm?"

Sam sat up on her elbow as she starred at him. She gently placed a kiss on his mouth. It was short and sweet. She pulled away before it could turn into anything, "Thanks for tonight." She laid her head back onto his chest, throwing her arm over him and snuggling in.

"You're welcome, but could you move your hand three inched to the left? You're pressing down on a bruise."

A/N: So this is actually the first iCarly story I ever wrote. I just couldn't ever find a way to end it. As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you guys think!


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